HANDLED With Care is the title of the latest body of work by an artist which praises the workers that have helped us survive lockdown and revive hope.

Clive Rand is a local artist whose work will be familiar to diners at the Vine Restaurant in Ilkley.

For nearly ten years his paintings and prints have been on sale there and all the money raised has been donated to the RNLI to help save lives at sea. Over £3,000 has been raised to date.

In January this year Clive began working on a new series of paintings of Ilkley doorways which were earmarked for a private viewing at his son and daughter-in-law’s house in Middleton.

He had completed three of the works when lockdown changed all our lives on March 23.

“Somehow, soon after we were confined to our homes and cut off from friends and family I lost all interest in painting closed doors and began to explore other ideas,” said Clive.

“One theme I kept coming back to was the work people do that until lockdown we’d all taken for granted.

“For example, critical care, care of the elderly, education, the delivery of food and medicines, the post, education, transport, even shelf-stacking (which my grand-daughter does) and rubbish collection, not forgetting the life-saving service provided by RNLI crew volunteers.

“All these essential tasks rely on skilful, dedicated and safe pairs of hands.

“And they need our recognition and praise.

“Hence my new series of works entitled ‘Handled with Care’: 12 studies of workers’ hands in pastel with optional limited edition prints.

“Each picture comes with an accompanying poem.

“After the launch a limited edition book will be published featuring all the works.

“All proceeds from sales of the pictures will be donated to charity.”

Clive is currently planning how the works will be launched in either a real or virtual preview event sometime in September.

Please email: clive@cliverand.com if you would like more information.

In the meantime some of the pictures can be viewed on his website at http://www.cliverand.com

* Jon (Clive’s son) and Katie Rand are the voices behind the Ilkley Gazette Talking Newspaper